Carbuncle's Treasure Chest
by Loki Thorson
Summary: In the vein of other authors, a collection of one-shots, rough ideas and tales, from across the multi-verse.
1. Chapter 1

**No Need For Iron Pyrite**

 **0.0 - Mine**

 _Earth Bet_

It is a tale as old as time, a brown-haired beauty is rescued from a pack of rabid wolves by a beast, the two fall in love with each other, together discovering their mutual interest in tormenting peasants of the nearby village. In this tale a red-headed potential beauty queen is saved from a vicious gang by a shadowy beast in human form, the beauty found her strength in the beast's predator/prey mentality and helped the beast to find a target for her anger against anything weak, in the form of her former best friend.

For almost almost two years the beauty and the beast lead a campaign of torment against beauties former friend, rumor mongering, destroying her possessions, causing bruises and intimidating her, when no one in authority was looking, and sometimes when they were. It was in the opening days of year two thousand eleven, when they trapped the girl in a metal coffin full of blood and insects, leaving her to die.

The girl screamed and begged for release, but no one was willing to help her. As sounds faded into into a setting sun, the girl came to realize she was left here to die, she began to pray within her own soul for salvation from anyone or anything to save her.

Flickers of light began to appear within her tomb, and the girl gasped in wonder at the lights, even as she began to lose consciousness as a vision of two immense spiraling beings imprinted into her mind. The girl gasped for another breath and the light that was forming in the casket was drawn into her throat, she could feel it burning her very soul. With a final scream of soul searing pain, there was a burst of light and all was silent.

The hallway was silent, scorched metal, half melted into the walls, within a locker, the door half bent, a single hand of blue crystal frozen in time reached for freedom.

 _Universe Sigma_

In an alternate universe, deep in space far beyond what man has explored in the modern age, the greatest scientific genius in the universe, Washu Hakubi (Eagle-feather Excellence) is deep in the bowels of her laboratory. The diminutive scientist had the appearance of a 12 year old human child, but in fact, was over fifteen thousand years old (as far as she knew). Her long flowing floor length pink hair, framed her face like the legs of a crab, as she easily made her way skipping, into the deepest parts of her inter-dimensional lab.

Washu was in the midst of conducting routine maintenance on her equipment, while various systems monitored her other experiments, a spring cleaning one might say. She checking the devices that maintained the dimensional pocket he rlab was in, when she received an alert about an unknown dimensional breach located in an alternate universe.

"How interesting," Washu grinned to herself, a glint of intrigue shone in her eyes, even as she summoned her holographic keyboard in front of her.

Being the curious person she is, Washu activates a remote system to monitor and retrieve any data about the breach.

Suddenly, alarms ring out across the laboratory, as a power surge rocks through Washu's equipment, causing the entire dimensional pocket to shake like it was an earthquake. At the same time an massive energy spike in the breach her instruments had detected, interacts with the monitoring systems in the lab and with a surge of ionized atmosphere, a hole in the fabric of the universe erupts open in front of Washu. The rupture pulsed, even as all available sensors recorded data to multiple systems.

A critically injured teenage human girl, falls out of the portal just before it closes, leaving the girl dying at Washu's feet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: This short piece, was inspired by the cover art of Amazing Fantasy #15; 1962**

 **Amazing Fantasy**

...Grey ominous skies, blanket the beautiful city of New York on a cool autumn afternoon. The usual fare of angry horns and the call of sidewalk beggars fills the otherwise pleasant day. Children laugh as they skip home from school, free from worry and strife. Men and women do their business at all the trendy spots. And in the darkened alleys, outlaws plot and observe their next victim.

From one of those dark alleyways, an unshaven middle-aged man in a dark green jacket that let him blend into the shadow's, watched as across the street a young woman exited the bank he was staking out, in a hurry. The young woman hurried across the street and passed right in front of the alley the man in the green coat waited. Quick as a flash, as the young woman passed, the man grabbed her purse before bolting back down the alley. He was already lost to the shadows, before the young woman let out a scream.

"Stupid broad," the man snarled to himself. He slowed down and began to rummage through the purse, chuckling, "Let's see what kind of presents you have for me today."

A faint sound of silk rubbing against itself, echoed faintly down the dark alley. Spooked, the man's neck darted back and forth, looking for the source of the sound.

"Who's there?" he called out to the shadows. Bending down, the green jacketed man, picked up a piece of discarded lumber and brandishing his new weapon with a few threatening swings, called out again to the shadows, "I know some mooch's there! You'll come out where I can see ya, if you know what's good for ya!"

Silence was his only reply for several moments, than the sound of silk rubbing against silk came once again, and the man felt the piece of lumber jolt in his hand.

"Huh…?" the man questioned, looking at the strange grey snot that had suddenly appeared on the end of his weapon. "What the 'ell is this stuff?"

Another jolt went through his arm, and the man found himself disarmed of his weapon, the piece of lumber tumbled away from him, towards the shadows of the alley.

"Wha…?" the man followed the arc of his lost weapon, his eyes freezing on a spot thirty feet above him, wide in disbelief even when his former weapon landed noisily into a garbage dumpster. His eyes were riveted to a spot where another man dressed in a red and blue spandex costume, gripping a thin greyish wire hung upside down, partially obscured by the shadows of the alleyway that were once the man in the green jacket's ally. Large luminous white eyes bore down at the frightened criminal.

"No! No, that's impossible!" eyes wide in fright, the man slowly began to back away from the ominous figure. "Y-you're just a fairy tale! You don't exist!"

A noise behind him, caused the criminal the jump in surprise, jerking his head around to find it's source, then quickly turning back when he realized his mistake of taking his eyes off of his stalker. He looked, but the man in red and blue had disappeared. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead as he nervously searched for any sign of New York's newest urban legend.

"Just my imagination? I'm sure... " he said to himself, almost positive that what he saw did not happen. He decided to leave, and make his way to his favorite bar, "A few rounds at Josie's is just what I need. Heh, imagine jumping at shadows…"

That's when the man turned his head and came face to mask with the costumed man.

"Boo," the red and blue clothed man nearly whispered.

\- {000} -

Screams of the green jacketed wearing criminal were heard all the way down to the front of the bank, where a police officer was taking the victim's statement. Everyone on the street who heard the screams looked up as they got closer. Then suddenly the source was seen, being carried easily fifty feet above the ground by the now visible costumed vigilante.

The crowd below gasped in awe and in fright, as the red and blue masked man, soared high over their heads, swinging on a skinny cable like grey thread, carrying the purse snatcher towards the waiting police officer.

"Oh my God!" called out one excited spectator. "Its…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Lonely Among Us**

'Being Taylor Hebert is suffering,' said teenage girl thought to herself, cursing her own naivety as she desperately tried to both catch her breath and not breath in the copper scent of the rotting waste of her prison. She had been forced violently into the confined space of her locker, the first day back after winter break, to the laughter of her tormentors, the bitches three, and her fellow classmates, left alone in the dark with only their mocking to keep her company along with her ragged breathing.

She had lost track of how long she had been in the dark, the concussion from her head being rammed into the back of her locker didn't help nor did the agony from her broken left arm. The putrid smell of the rotten used pads and other garbage was causing her stomach to roll again, she would have regurgitated again but Taylor had already lost that battle when she had first opened the locker door.

The very little light coming through a small crack in the door was swiftly beginning to dim, her lungs burning even as black spots began to dance across Taylor's vision. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Taylor was recalling that seeing black spots was a symptom of asphyxia, or at least she thought it was. Her eyes felt heavy, the spiders that were crawling over her face were ignored as Taylor fought a losing battle against fatigue.

Taylor never felt when the spiders began to bite her.

Taylor felt herself floating on an ethereal stream, existing only for that moment and no other. Noises she couldn't comprehend intruded on her peaceful slumber, awakened her from the coma like state she had been in, to her displeasure. Opening what she thought were her eyes, Taylor gasped for air, if air existed in this astral state, as she beheld the universe laid before her. All the knowledge in the galaxy, the meaning to the balance of life, the necessity of death, the serenity of just being. It was the perfect place, a haven for the soul, a heaven for the spirit. A perfect place to be… if it wasn't for the two giant ass slugs dancing around and upsetting the balance of the universe.

A tear came to her eye, as Taylor watched the universe rip itself apart.

 **[Destination?]**

"Wh-what was that?"

 **[Trajectory?]**

"What does that mean?"

 **[Agreement.]**

"What!" Nerves began firing off in Taylor's brain, as the destructive slugs began to shed their scales, one of which headed for her!

"Oh hell, no!" Taylor exclaimed, as one of those scales began to head in her direction. As the slug's scale drew closer, a pale glow growing brighter as it neared, Taylor desperately tried to flee from it, knowing that something horrifying would happen if she allow it to touch her. Throwing her metaphysical weight around, Taylor was able to force her astral body to move away from the scale that was growing larger by the second.

Unfortunately, Taylor only seemed to move at a slow walk, and the scale was gaining rapidly, it's surface bubbling with tentacles that began to unravel from it and start to stretch for her. An increasingly panicking Taylor, desperately sought an escape from the eldritch horror that was rapidly gaining on her. A shifting planetoid caught her attention as she drifted pass, hidden within it's orbiting rocks a pinprick of light shone that all but screamed at her, salvation. At that moment another slug scale passed right in front her, dragging Taylor into its wake, and away from safety.

Taylor's astral self tumbled after the falling scale, it's strong current bringing her closer to her escape, but leaving her moving out of control. As she got closer, Taylor struggled for release, fear gripping her as the tentacles from the other scale drew ever closer and the wake this one started to drag her away from the portal she could see was nearly in reach.

Thoughts raced in circles across Taylor's brain, she had to get out of this wake in order to escape this place, but how? Maybe…. Maybe if she reduced whatever it was, that created her mass here, it would reduce the drag of the wake and with a enough of a boost she could get out of the slipstream. Taylor concentrated on compacting herself, trying to make herself smaller while still hopefully having enough to power her out of the wake.

Nothing happened, and Taylor felt panic begin to creep into her thoughts again, despair and hopelessness egged her to give up and accept her fate. It strangely enough, sounded a lot like Emma, her former best friend and sister by all but blood. The one who had betrayed their bonds and put her in this situation in the first place. Emma could not win! Emma will not win! Anger sparked through Taylor's consciousness, from deep within her, she felt a welling of power surge forth and Taylor moved.

Far quicker than she imagined, Taylor found herself speeding towards the door of light, which she could see was rapidly closing. Shedding more weight, she pushed herself just a little more faster, a cheer went through her being as she reached the doorway and began to pull herself through. That cheer became a rictus of pain as a tentacle from the slug scale, finally caught up to her and began to wrap around her being.

"Wha… No!"

Taylor screamed in defiance and with a mighty push, escaped momentarily from it's grip and fled into the doorway in a desperate gamble. She could feel the thing trying to latch onto her once again, even as she felt herself tumble through the brightness of the doorway as it quickly collapsed behind her.

As an exhausted Taylor fell through this corridor of light that now surrounded her, wisps of a dark miasma remained clinging to her body where the slug thing's tentacles had momentarily gripped her, she fell unconscious and let herself drift into oblivion. Her last thoughts before succumbing to a deep sleep were, "Free. I'm free…"


	4. Chapter 4

_**Road To Earth MacFarlane**_

Bang! Bang!

The pistol barked twice and twin bullets penetrated the skull of the teen girl kneeling on the blood soaked ground. The young woman who was once known as, Khepri, fell to the ground, her tortured mind and body finally at peace. The older woman wearing a fedora, standing over the corpse few only knew as Contessa, sighed at the end of the threat to the world.

"Door to nowhere," she called out to the air in front of her. A glowing rip in the fabric of reality shimmered into existence.

Following her shard's steps, Contessa picked up the girl's body, and flung it into the limbo that would be awaiting it. Watching the portal close, for a brief moment, Contessa wondered if she should feel regret for this action, tossing the body of humanity's "champion" into the void like a broken toy. But the moment passed, Contessa remained emotionless as she walked into a different portal, there was work to do. The rebuilding of Earth Bet, had just begun.

There are many religions that believe that when one dies, that their soul is reborn into a new body on the planet they were born on. With dimensional travel, that belief gets finiki. As such, the body, soul and it's passenger, of a young brown haired woman drifted for many years through the void, between dimensions. Till one millennium, a deity, we'll call him ROB, came across this curious sight and closely examined the tortured soul before it.

Taking pity on the lesser being, the deity willed a gateway to a new world to open and lightly kicked the being's soul and mind, into a new place. It's self-appointed task done, the deity wished it a peaceful life, before promptly forgetting about the being it had come across and drifted further into the void, thoughts of giant chickens on it's mind.

Memories… It had been so long since it last had any thoughts that were it's own, so much to remember, but so much had been forgotten, lost to the void. It had a name at one point, parents, family, friends, adventures, tragedy much of that was metaphorical swiss cheese in it's mind. But the things it could remember… it could remember power. The intoxicating sense of absolute control over everything on the planet. In its mind, it could perceive many plans and inventions for technology so far advanced it may well be magic.

Tempering this though, was the image of a tall glasses wearing man and a smiling brown haired woman, dancing and singing together along with the television in the corner, which was playing an old Bob Hope movie. Of curling up safely in the side of a friendly mastiff. Of trading barbed insults with a boy while playing violent video games. Of being told she's a smart cookie by a blonde girl with a knowing smirk. Of a young man named Brian with a friendly smile just for her.

Her? Oh… she was female. Maybe. It was quite peculiar. Then the images passed and once more the sights of a battlefield filled it's vision, memories of being the master of the world curled around its essence. A man and woman danced and sang. The spiral continued.

Time passed. Thoughts were becoming more clear as vague sensations made themselves known. At one point, it recalled the feeling of battle once more, of squeezing the trigger, of targets being eliminated as it reached for it's goal where it was every man for himself, only for despair to set in as a trap was sprung.

It was the beginning of an imprisonment that would last for almost a year.

As time passed, its prison slowly began to shrink, even as its awareness of its surroundings grew.

On day one hundred and seventy, a pink diary with name of Me* on the cover, found it's way inside the prison. The imprisoned soul, quickly tore threw the book, tearing out and tossing away what was already written, before beginning to chronicle its circumstance in how it came to be there. The next day, it began to write about all the changes that had been happening to its body, including the growth of an eleventh finger below its belly.

As months of solitude passed, it began to go insane, to keep it at bay, it began to make plans for the total world domination beginning with northern europe. It's prison cell growing smaller and smaller until one day at last, it was sure that it would soon be dead, then a miracle. Their was a light at the end of a tunnel, escape was in its grasp, but moments away, it was ambushed by a man in white.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Griffon. It's a boy," the Doctor's voice trailed off, puzzled. "Oh. Wait a minute. I don't think we're through here."

"Oh my God," asked the tired and surprised red haired woman, "is it twins?"

"No it's… it's a map of Europe?"

The new born child in the arms of the woman, gave her an evil look. The color of red hair angered it for reasons it could not explain, but this woman dared to call herself it's mother! The babies heart turned cold with rage, at the audacity of this woman for taking it from it's true Mother. The one from it's waking dreams, the one called Annette.

She will die, by his hand! She will burn! She will…

"Hey there, my little Stewie," said the woman, hugging her newborn son to her chest, "welcome to the family."

…. She will , get hers later, maybe a gun barrel in a tuna fish sandwich? Right now Stewie was feeling very safe in her arms, as he fell to sleep...


	5. Fudd and Kaiju

**Fudd and Kaiju**

 _an omake based on, "Taylor Varga" by mp3.1415player_

Across the world, the Endbringer alarm sounds once again for the second time in a week. Teams of parahuman heroes and villains scrambled from their places of rest to answer the call, gathering quickly at staging points to be sent out to the far ends of the earth.

An sensation of unease swept through many, as the news of which Endbringer they were being summoned to fight, began to filter through the ranks. It wasn't Behemoth, the Hero Killer. It wasn't Leviathan, the Hope Crusher. Nor was it the Simurgh, the Mind Breaker. No, it was much worse than they could hope to put words to.

All three Endbringers, were converging on a single spot deep in the Pacific Ocean.

The generators quickly began to spin to full power across the warehouse containing the portal device, as several parahumans, PRT personal and lizard girls ran around the place, launch preparations for the Endbringer counter assault nearing completion. Tesla coils sparked with a high amount of voltage as Ithane and Metis threw switch after switch, spooking the gathered heroes as they began to laugh like mad scientists.

It was into this echoing disturbance, that Armsmaster walked into the warehouse followed by technicians carrying a case marked radioactive. Looking around the enlarged space, taking in all the new equipment, the worried looking personnel and the cackling lizards, he let out a resigned sigh before calling out to Ithane and Metis.

"What in tarnation, is going on here?"

The reptilian sisters stopped their cackling to acknowledge the arrival of the hero only to freeze, their eyes going wide with surprise before they broke out into hysterical laughter clutching to each other for support. Armsmaster huffed and crossed his arms over his armor, grumbling about ragflagistic leaping lizards, under his breath.

"You're face!" laughed Ithane, "What happened to your face?"

Grumbling some more, Armsmaster quickly strode towards Saurial's cousins, his signature blue and silver armor and halberd reflecting the lights from the numerous jacobs ladders from around the room. His face on the other hand, was missing it's also infamous neatly trimmed beard. Instead, flowing out from beneath his faceplate was a large, long, bushy, fire red handle bar moustache. With a huff of air, that briefly blew his moustache away from his face, he addressed the laughing lizards.

"A small incident with a new chemical compound and a missed decimal point in the last upgrade to my automated shaver, but that's not important right now. What's our ETA on Kaiju? And do we have a lock on where the Endbringers are converging?"

With a last chuckle, Metis grinned toothily at Armsmaster, "The last satellite update gave us a location, all three Endbringers are estimated to be making landfall on Easter Island in the next twelve minutes, give or take. As for our strange monster, Saurail was in the water just minutes after the siren went off. Kaiju should be here in approximately eight minutes. Do you have the boom maker?"

"Yes we're all set," replied Armsmaster. "Those varmints are going to get a nice surprise this day."

Armsmaster looked around the former fish plant turned mad scientist laboratory, taking in all the new equipment that had been installed since his last visit. "Why do you have so many old monster movie set props, that are unnecessary for the function of the portal, and just give this place a creepy atmosphere?"

Metis and Ithane grinned wide showing of rows of sharp teeth that made the PRT personnel shudder in horror, and spread their arms wide bowing slightly.

"Presentation!" they exclaimed together.

From a console to the right, a technician called out, "Kaiju has entered the harbour."

Ten minutes later, Kaiju stepped thru the portal and onto Easter Island. Ithane and Metis sighed. It was all in the claws of the hundred foot tall lizard now.

The computer next to Metis, issued and alert, catching her attention. Quickly reading the message, Metis turned to Ithane and said one word, "Coil." Then she was gone, out the door and beyond the DWU compound less than a minute later, not even noticing when a startled worker accidently dropped a bucket of white paint down her back.

The sun was just coming over the horizon in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, warming the waters around the mysterious Easter Island when every bird on the island suddenly took flight traveling to parts unknown. Moments later a bright pinprick of light appeared near the eastern shore, before it dramatically expanded to over a hundred feet in height. From within stepped out the eighty foot tall, seven limbed, blue scaled, friendly lizard, Kaiju. Toting her nuclear powered shotgun over her shoulder she looked up and down the shore curiously before focusing on the unnatural scent that was in the air.

Stepping fully onto the beach, the large lizard surveyed the portal as it began to close. Just before it disappeared, a small drone buzzed out of it and began to circle Kaiju. A small breeze brought the scent of Leet and Uber to her nose, with a mental grin, Kaiju quickly fashioned herself a brown and scarlet hunting vest and deerskin hunter's cap. Smirking, Kaiju looked right into the lens of the hovering camera, bringing up one of her clawed fingers to her snout signaled for silence.

"Shhhhh. Be wery, wery quiet. I'm hunting Endbwingers."

With that she brought her shotgun to her shoulder and began to tiptoe into the center of the island. That she was humming the mission impossible theme while doing so was totally a coincidence.

Hidden in a crater along the western coast of the island, Kaiju crept towards the three Endbringers as much as her thousand ton frame could sneak that is. Observing her query, Kaiju paused as she took in the scene. Below her the three Endbringers were what looked like in the middle of a heated debate, wildly gesturing and screeching at each other. But the most peculiar thing about these menaces was their appearance. Normally the Endbringers would be monstrous looking giants uncaring about their physical appearance, but for some strange reason it looked as if the Endbringers had tried to put on disguises in order to hide from the enemy. Badly.

Kaiju tried to guess what they were thinking, when they decided to try and dress like thirty foot tall harmless woodland creatures, but choose to ignore it as irrelevant, though Varga wouldn't stop laughing in her head.

Moving closer, she tried to figure out what the beasts were trying to imitate. Behemoth had covered itself in a grey moss trying to make it look like fur and bent saplings tied to it's head, which after a moment, Kaiju figured out that the Behemoth was imitating a giant grey rabbit… weird.

Her attention was than moved to the fast pacing aquatic threat. The Leviathan looked just as bizarre, as it had manipulated black oil to cover its body in the shape of black feathers and had apparently carved some coral into the shape a beak. A black mallard, really thought Kaiju.

The Simurgh on the other claw, was a whole other kettle of fish. It had done something to itself, she wasn't sure what, but it now looked like a giant multi-winged silver angel wearing a black and white cat girl costume, that looked very professionally done.

It was kinda ridiculous, really.

Tiptoeing closer, the Endbringers suddenly became alert and turned towards her immense form when she accidently stepped on a fallen tree causing a loud crack as it snapped in half easily from her weight. Everything froze.

Finally the taboo was broken by the Behemoth speaking for the first time in memory, as its deep voice rang out it munched on a piece granet it had picked up somewhere.

"Eh… What's up Croc?"

Five minutes later, Kaiju was very amused kept trying to shove one of their brethren in front of her shotgun.

"Rabbit season!"

"Cat season!"

"Rabbit season!"

"Duck season!"

"Cat season!"

"Duck season!"

"Rabbit season!"

"Lizard season!" The three Endbringers looked at Kaiju, "What? I was feeling neglected."

The three monsters went back to their argument.

"Rabbit season!"

"Cat season!"

A frustrated Behemoth and Simurgh glanced at each other, and gave a slight nod.

"It's Cat season!" screamed the Simurgh pulling on the shotgun to point at herself.

"No! It's Rabbit season!" rumbled Behemoth stepping into the weapon's path.

The over agitated Leviathan was going nuts, grabbing the end of the barrel pulled on it till it was right in it's face, and screamed fanatically at Kaiju, "It's Duck season, Shoot!"

Kaiju pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

Hawaii -

"You've been a great audience! Goodbye Honolulu, and have a great night!" The blond and feather headed young woman called to the huge crowd in front her stage. The crowd had just begun to chant for an encore when a brilliant light exploded across the horizon to the south, followed minutes later by several large bangs.

The ground shakes, as what ever had happened set off a nearby volcano, realizing the danger they are in, the crowd quickly begins to become a mob of panicky human.

Seeing the once cheerful people become an unruly mob, the young singer Canary, took it upon herself to use a part of her power that she rarely indulged in, her hypnotic voice.

"Attention," she called into her microphone. "Attention everyone! I know you are all scared, but I must ask you to calm down. Panicking will not help. Please listen to me." Seeing everyone turning to obey her, she quickly gave instruction to calmly evacuate the area, and to help each other reach safety as quickly as possible.

Paige 'Canary' McPhee watched as the masses quickly escaped the area, she stayed to the last feeling it was her responsibility to make sure her fans got away unharmed. As she began to make her way out of the stadium, another boom of sound came from over head. She and the cameraman who had stayed to film all the action, looked up and watched as The Simurgh, in a cat costume, tumbled uncontrolled overhead towards the now active volcano.

Shocked, Canary stumbled on the uneven ground, causing her to bite her tongue.

"Ow! My thonge!" she exclaimed, before turning to the cameraman. "I thought I thaw a putty-tat!"

Making a decision, Canary, and her cameraman, make their way up to the edge of the volcano, dodging streams of lava and hot gasses, all the while sending the images live over the world. Sooner than expected, they reach the volcano rim, where they find a badly injured Simurgh, hanging onto the lip with a few fingers.

"I did! I did, see a putty-tat!" murmured Canary into her live mike.

Stirring up her bravery, Canary approaches the Endbringer, which gives her a pleading look.

"This little piggy went to the market." she chants, as she loosens the Simurgh's hold.

"This little piggy stayed home." another finger loses its purchase.

"This little piggy had roast beef." One more finger left.

"This little piggy had none."

With that, the Simurgh plunges deep into the crater, and begins to be seared alive by the lake of lava.

"This little… aww, no more piggy's" Canary grinned at the camera.

Back in Brockton Bay, Coil could feel his heart practically exploding in his chest, as he races from street to street on foot. Looking behind him, he whimpers as he catches sight of the monster stalking him.

Metis, her scales black as night, chases Coil down the streets of Brockton Bay, skipping happily after him, her black scales coated with twin white lines of paint from an errant placed paintbrush trailed down her back. Laughing merrily at the fun she's having, she calls out to Coil.

"Come, Mon Cheri! Let me embrace you! It is how you say, eh, painful at first, but I'll survive it."

"You're despicable!" Coil cries, as Metis pounces on him.

Several officers watched as Metis chased after the villain known as Coil, all across Brockton Bay, gathered on the Docks, they took bets and called encouragement to the exhausted villain.

Just above them, the sounds of rusted hinges being forced to work after a long time, draws their attention. A shirtless and drunk Kenta, sticks his head out the window of the tavern he had been drowning his sorrows in for the past few weeks. Seeing himself being looked at oddly by the police officers, he stutters out, "Th-a, Th-a, Th-a, That's all folks." before climbing back into the tavern and his drink.


	6. Feather Fall & 616

_[a couple more omakes for; Taylor Varga]_

 **Omake: Feather-Fall**

Deep within the Oval Office interior, the US President and his staff sat and listened in disbelief as the Chief Director of the PRT completed her debriefing with an air of embarrassment, about the latest debacle from Brockton Bay. With his head in his hands, the President moaned in imagined pain.

"Why," he groaned. "Why is it always that god damned city! Nazis, Dragonmen, serial killers, lizard girls, giant ship moving monsters and now this! Is there any reason I can't just fire a nuke at this... this apocalypse in the making?"

"Sir.."one of his aides spoke up.

"Yes, yes I know. PR, nuclear fallout and all that bull." Taking another deep breath, the President looked at the women in charge of the government's parahuman response team, in a very quiet and controlled voice he gave the woman an order. "Again Director Costa-Brown, summarize the events please."

The Director nodded to him, "As you wish sir. Late yesterday afternoon, the alert went out once again that the Simurgh had begun its descent once more, this time its target appeared to be Brockton Bay, NH. Dispatches went out across the world, and the response was quick. Parahumans began assembling at the Protectorate base, code named "The Rig" in lesser numbers than usual..."

"Has a reason been determined for the lower numbers of parahumans?" asked one of the members of the staff.

"Not as of yet, Sir," Costa-Brown replied, "but the best guess was that many believed that the Endbringer would turn away again, rather than fight the parahuman known as Kaiju."

"Yet another thing to add to our inquiry list," the President sighed. "Very well. Continue Director."

"As I said, Sir, a lesser than usual number of parahumans had responded to the alert. While we took a few minutes to plot our attack plan for fewer numbers, The Simurgh increased its descent speed, giving us little time to prepare. We deployed to the expected landing zone only to be alerted by Dragon, that The Simurgh had changed course. We repositioned, and the Endbringer changed landing site again. This happened several times, leading us around in circles, until Kaiju got fed up with it, and barked an order at it to land already while pointing at a local schools soccer field."

"Seriously. Did anyone actually expect that to work?"

"Honestly, Sir, No. A few people laughed, thinking she was making a joke to relieve the tension, but no one expected that to work. So of course everyone stopped laughing when the Simurgh immediately stopped it's maneuvers and moved at all speed straight to the field, cutting through and knocking over the school building on the way."

"Excuse me," another member of the staff interrupted, "What was the name of the school that was torn down by its approach?"

Costa-Brown took a moment to look at her notes. "Winslow Memorial High School, sir."

"Were there any casualties, from this?"

"Surprisingly, none. Not within the school, or with the entire battle."

A murmur went through the Joint Chiefs, surprise evident that no deaths had occured during this Endbringer attack.

"What about the 'Scream'?" Another person asked. "Did it give off a 'Scream' at all?"

"No sir. It was silent through the whole thing."

The Joint Chiefs became silent, their world view was trying to change without their command. Again. It wasn't right, damn it!

"Continuing, gentlemen," the Director spoke up. "Once the Simurgh landed, trailing debris and other sundry items from the schools drama department, it began to fashion something while the rest of the attack force came out of the stupor they had been in when the Endbringer actually obeyed the order. The assembled heroes and villains, flanked by The Family members Metis and Ithane to one side and Kaiju taking the vanguard position."

The President interrupted once more, "Just how much damage did Kaiju do, walking through the streets?"

"None, sir."

"None! How is that possible!? She's close to a hundred feet tall, hundred fifty long, if not bigger and weighting at a guess, around 80 tonnes! How could she move through the streets without crushing and knocking over every building in her path?"

Costa-Brown gave a small smile. "It's due to her matter generation ability, that her side of the Family, has, sir. Using that, she reinforced all surfaces she came into contact with, with the substance that Armsmaster of the ENE Protectorate originally dubbed SaurialSteel. Because of its strength, the SaurialSteel coating easily allowed Kaiju to move through the city at speed, without damaging the infrastructure of the city."

"Amazing. Simply amazing... continue."

"When the attack force arrived, the Simurgh had finished whatever design she had in mind, and raised a white flag." At the Joint Chiefs looks of skepticism, Costa-Brown assured them it was true. The Endbringer, Simurgh, had raised a white flag of truce. "It shocked all of us, sir. It was even more surprising when the thing dressed itself up in a purple costume and mask made from the school's auditorium. Ithane commented afterwards that the costume bared a striking resemblance to the one the former villainess known as Tattletale used to wear."

"Please don't tell me an abomination like that, actually began to hero worship a villain."

"No sir. I won't tell you that."

The silence stretched on for several uncomfortable seconds.

"Aw, hell!"

"As you say sir. The Simurgh then proceeded to dawn a mask, before it raised a sign it had written out, which kind of brought the whole thing to an end."

"And what was it that this sign said?"

Costa-Brown coughed, "Well Mr. President, the sign said, and I quote; 'Hello, my name is Feather-Fall, I am a parahuman from a different Earth in a parallel dimension. I wish to join the Family as a hero, a member in good standing.' End quote."

The amount of curses that follow this statement were enough to make a longshoreman blush and the air turn blue.

"That doesn't explain why everyone went home, just a few minutes later!"

"I understand that sir. What happened was the Rules sir."

"Explain!" the President barked sharply.

"Simply, that the Simurgh is an civilian identity of the being the happened to be a notorious killer. While Feather-Fall is a masked hero that wants to do good in the world."

"I don't understand, cut thought the bullshit Director!"

"It's the Unwritten Rules sir. We can't go after capes, hero or villain, in their civilian identity, and we can't civilians who commit crimes, when they put the mask on. It's a catch twenty-two scenario that happens more then you'd think."

"That makes absolutely no sense! No sense at all!"

"Sir, I don't write the Unwritten Rules, I'm just forced to follow them."

~End~

 **616**

Daily Bugle photographer, Peter Parker, became hyper alert as another crash sounded through the maze of concrete and steel of New York City. Being trapped in the middle of public made it impossible to discover what was going on nearby in the guise of his alternate identity of the amazing Spider-Man. All he could do was ready his camera for action as he was dragged along by the crowd in the New York streets.

Coming around the corner, that just so happened to lead to the Daily Bugle building, their was another crash sound, followed by the sound of falling debris, and someone calling down from on high.

"Whoops!"

Peter brought his camera to his eye and focused it towards the rooftops above. Whatever it was causing the disturbance became crystal clear to his eyes, and despite all the adventures and world saving action he had been through, still caught him off guard enough that his jaw dropped.

"Don't worry. I can fix that!" Came the deep feminine voice of what looked to be a dark-blue lizard creature wearing armor and sporting a pair of sunglasses. "It almost worked that time." it said.

Peter held down the shutter button as the lizard girl motioned to someone behind her, and was surprised when another armor wearing lizard girl appeared, only this one was pitch black with red highlights down its body. Taking position next to the first one, it looked to the other before pointing across the road.

"Are you sure this won't hurt, Saurail?" it asked the first one.

"Of course it's safe, Metis!" this Saurail replied. "Just look at Ithane."

Peter quickly pivoted, and found himself taking pictures of yet another lizard girl, only this one was embedded into the side of a building across the street.

"See, totally fine."

"Whatever," the black one, Metis, grumbled. Peter turned back to the other two lizards catching sight of something that wasn't there before. some sort of long rope that went across the street and was anchored to a sightly higher building.

It took a moment for Peter to figure out what he was seeing. "No way," he whispered to himself. "no %*%$&$# way!"

Before he could voice any more, the lizard leap. And with a call of, "Tally-ho!" was swinging across the street on a thin strand of something, laughing all the while until she embedded upside down in the building next to Ithane.

"Okay, I can fix that too!" Called Saurail, before another rope materialized in her talons. "I got it this time, for sure!"

Saurail took a running jump to add momentum, add was soon soaring across the road way herself with a scream of, "Cowabunga!" Saurail made another scream of joy, as another rope appeared in her hand leading back across the street, allowing her to correct her trajectory. Her cry of jubilation was brief, as the rope snagged on a gargoyle causing the lizard girl to flip up and threw the windows of upper floors of the Daily Bugle building.

Peter grinned, if he wasn't mistaken, the lizard girl, just smashed into ol' JJ's office.

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."


	7. Inspired From The Classics

_**Yet some more Omakes from Mpi's Taylor Varga. Enjoy your Hallowe'en treat.**_ __

Inspired From The Classics [Issue 1]

 _ **Taylor Meets ... the Creature!**_

The sun had set not long ago, but the small village in the mountains glowed red with torchlight, as angry and panicked townsfolk poured into the village square carrying whatever makeshift weapons they could find, holding burning torches above their heads looking into every crevice and crack for that which they feared.

Upon the gallows, the Burgomaster and the chief constable yelled at the screaming mob, trying to elicit some form of order. Though they too wanted nothing more than to join in the hunt for the creature that terrorized them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Ladies and Gentlemen! Please, calm yourselves!"

Slowly the townspeople deescalated from raging mob to a grumbling crowd as the people in charge drew their attention.

"Thank you. Thank you," praised the Burgomaster. "We know you are quite upset, and yes we are too. The creature has returned once again to plague our humble village. Already several deaths have been caused by the creature and it shall not stand!"

The mob screamed with unspent fury.

"We shall scour the land and put an end to the creature, once and for all time!"

Cries of justice for the dead rose up from the villagers.

"It will not escape! We will destroy it!"

Great cheers of jubilation erupted in the square as the mob began to chant...

"Destroy the creature! Destroy the creature!"

The Burgomaster signaled for quiet once more. "Now we must decide how to divide our men for this hunt. And let us not forget, we must have some to volunteer to stay behind in the village to protect our women and children."

Very quickly the constable began calling out names and telling them where to begin their searches.

"Now that we are prepared, we have one last thing to do. Let us pray for those we lost."

The people fell silent mourning the dead. Then there was a wailing shriek that split the night skies, scaring the townspeople half to death. More screams followed, this time from the villagers themselves, as a wave of them scattered around the gallows trying to hide.

From the gates to the village a tall dark figure staggered forward at great speed, shrieking in abject fear as it raced towards the village square. The flickering torchlight played across the shadows revealing the visage of the very creature the villagers had been about to hunt down. Frankenstein's monster.

The villagers screamed as the seven foot tall creature charged past them, the Burgomaster and the constable flinched backwards as it pulled itself onto the gallows and everyone grew very confused as the creature crawled behind their legs and began to whimper in fear.

"I... I? What? What is going on here?" the shocked man questioned.

*THUD*

*THUD*

The impact of heavy feet sounded through the square, causing a hushed silence in the crowd.

*THUD*

It was coming closer.

*THUD*

And closer!

...

And then there was silence except for the creature moans of fear.

The wind blew gently through the town, the torches crackled merrily and a piece of paper rustled next to the Burgomeister's ear.

"What's everybody looking at?" whispered a female voice into his ear.

The Burgomaster jumped and almost peed himself when the voice addressed him, then he he turned to the female's voice to tell the girl off for surprising him. When he caught sight of the female, his scornful words died in his throat as he became very pale and pissed himself in fear.

Standing even taller than the creature, an orange reptilian eye stared down inquisitively at him set within an inhuman face of blue scales which covered its entire body from the top of her head to the tip of her long swaying tail. Feathers on top of her head rustled as she turned her attention completely to him and smiled. My God the teeth! Please don't let it eat me, the Burgomaster thought ideally noting the piece of paper she was holding in her clawed hand.

The whole village was silent as they stared, terrified, at this giant lizard that had appeared in their midst.

"So anyway," the lizard thing spoke. "I've been doing some traveling the past few days, this world is nice you know, I just came over the mountains back there and I had a blast snowboarding down from the peaks, so much so I went back up several times to do it again." Here the thing reached up to scratch the back of its head, looking quite contrite and sheepish. " Unfortunately, I got myself all turn around, so seeing the lights off in the distance I came this way hoping someone could give some directions."

Turning around the lizard pointed a clawed finger at the creature that was still trying to make itself as small as possible behind the constable. "I ran into this fella outside in the woods, and tried asking him where I was, but all I got out of him were grunts and growls before he tried wrapping his paws around my throat. It tickled. I then noticed the poor guy looked like he's been to the hospital recently, with all those stitches and sutures on him, I offered to take him to meet several doctors I know. They could easily take him apart and put him back together again brand new. But then he started screaming in my face, which was really quite rude by the way, and he took off into town when I smiled at him. sigh, I'll never understand you humans."

The lizard huffed in annoyance as the villagers held their collective breaths. It shook its head and turned her attention back to the frightened man in front of her.

"So enough about that," she ruffed the paper catching the Burgomaster's attention, "Can you point out where we're at on this map? I have an appointment in Norway in a few days and I want to get there early so I can sample their culture."

A very shaky finger pointed to their location.

"Thanks for that. I'll be on my way then, nice meeting you."

The lizard girl was beginning to move away when the constable called out. "Wait!"

Pausing, she turned to him, "Yes?"

"Young er... lady. You said you could get this lad here some help?" the constable asked, gesturing to the creature behind him.

"Of course. Quite easily in fact."

"Well... could you, take the creatu... I mean this young man with you? he has some very special needs and we, being such a small town so far away from anyone else, don't have the ability to... care for him. So if you could find it in your... heart to take him in. Maybe for the rest of his life? we would be most grateful."

The lizard girl tilted her head in thought for a moment before she grinned, exposing far too many sharp pointy teeth. "Sure. That's no problem. My friend Amy's been looking for a new lab assistant anyways. She has such bad luck with them, her last three ended up in sanitariums for reason. Anyways this guy looks sturdy enough, I'm sure he'll last for a few months."

Shortly afterwards, the lizard thing skipped out of the village, her gift for Amy slung over her shoulder, chained, gagged and wishing for a way to escape.

His wish was not granted.

The End.

Inspired From The Classics [Issue 2]

 _ **Taylor Swims With... The Gill-Man!**_

The dense green jungle was flush with life, birds singing to each other from high in the trees, animals calling warnings to each other from the darkness, the dense brush crinkling gently in the winds. Along the river the splashes of crocodiles frolicking in the water, patiently hunting for their next meal. The flora and fauna is quite beautiful along the banks of the rivers of the Amazon. Very peaceful... until the guns of man began to echo across the water.

If one were to follow a certain tributary off the Amazon River, through many twists and turns deep into the jungle, it would eventually lead one to a small landlocked lagoon. Local tribes of indigenous people tell tales of dark things that happen near those waters and that many who venture there are seldom seen again, so it gained the name of the Black Lagoon, an evil place of witchcraft to be avoided. Despite the tales, there are the adventurous fools who still travel these waters, like the American scientists on board a local fishing boat called The Rita.

They came here in search of ancient fossils, but were now trapped in the lagoon with some menace beneath the surface, that had blocked off the only exit from there and was pulling them under one by one.

"Does anyone see where that creature went?" called the blond male.

"No sign over here," a brown haired male told him. "Lucas, any damage to the hull?"

"No damage mister David," the grey bearded captain of ship said appearing on deck from a hatch. He peered over the prow of his ship studying the obstruction. "We're gonna need to be using the winch for this mess sirs. That monster be pretty strong to pull down a tree like no?"

"David, Mark," the ship's sole female aboard, Kay, called out to the men, "is there no other way out of here? That, thing, I can almost feel its eyes on me."

David shook his head, "I'm sorry dear, but we're stuck here until we can clear the channel."

"Don't you worry your pretty little head," Mark sneered, "Once we capture that thing..."

"Mark, you've seen how dangerous that creature can be," Kay reprimanded him, "It's already slashed our nets and has broken out of the hold for the brief time we had it unconscious, we are running low on supplies and more of us will die hear if we don't escape. Can't you see that?"

"All I see is the wasted opportunity of a lifetime," he rejoined bitterly.

"Mark, that's enough," David gripped Mark's arm to guide him away from Kay. "As soon as we clear this blockade, we are leaving whether you like it or not. Besides, you can come back next time with a fully equipped team, it will probably still be here."

Mark snarled, getting into David's face, "And what's to stop that thing from leaving this place? Nothing! That's what. We don't even have any evidence it even exists, we need to get it now."

"And how we gonna do that mister," Lucas calmly grinned at him, "Do you just expect the fish-man to just leap out of the water and fall into your lap." Lucas let out a bark of laughter, before an explosion of water had him swallow his words, as the fish-man flew out of the lagoon and into the ship's rigging before falling at his feet clearly unconscious.

Everyone on board was stunned, what had just happened they all wondered. Captain Lucas opened and closed his mouth several times, amusingly enough, like a fish, before calling out to the river gods, "It's not like a chest full of gold bullion will fly out of the lagoon and land at my feet?"

It was silent for several moments before Lucas turn to the others with a shrug, "Oh well, I had to try..."

There was another shower of liquid as a small wooden chest tumbled to a stop next to Lucas' feet. Swallowing with his suddenly dry throat, Lucas reached out a trembling hand to the chest.

"Careful Lucas, "David cautioned.

The Captain, with great care, unlatched and opened the lid. Inside was a bar of some sort of metal along with a note.

 _Dear Captain... And Friends,_

 _We're sorry for the inconvenience that was brought to you by our pet here. We had accidentally misplaced a few specimens when we last passed through this place, of course back then it was slightly colder, and having recently visiting some thieving Norse men on a different dimension, decided to check in on a few places we may have left one of our tools and experiments. Ugh! Don't get me started on what some warlord did when he found one of our cookbooks in the middle of Europe or that whole kerfuffle down in Karnak._

 _Anyways, we've cleared the channel for you and took a moment to heal up your injured men, so we wish you a pleasant sail on friendly waters. Good luck._

 _Best wishes,_

 _Saurial of The Family_

 _P.S. We're taking gilly here back home to his proper fish tank, his owners been worried sick since he disappeared on her._

The startled crew of the good ship Rita, snapped around to look at where the fish-man had been, only to find him gone. The only clue was the very large reptilian footprint outlined in water on the deck.

Gulping, David carefully peered over the prow to find the tree locking them in was just gone, with no evidence it was there in the first place.

"Lucas," he called hoarsely, "Lucas, get... get the engine started and get us the hell out of here."

"You bet your ass mister!"

Very quickly, the little fishing boat was cruising back out into the Amazon river, leaving it's crew to breath a long awaited sigh of relief.

The End…

 _Inspired From The Classics [Issue 3]_

 _ **Taylor Swings With... Kong!**_

Ann screamed as the giant thirty foot tall ape, called King Kong by the native population of Skull Island, reached it's great black furred hand towards her. The terrified young woman thought back to how she had gotten into this situation in the first place. From her failed bid into showbiz, to living between halfway houses across New York, almost giving into the temptation to start stealing food just so she didn't spend another cold night on the streets with an empty stomach. If she had known then what she would be experiencing now, she would have told that confidence man of a director, Carl Denham, exactly what he could do with his picture.

In her opinion, the only thing that was really worth it on this trip was meeting that handsome Mr. Driscoll.

Ann screamed again, as the meaty fist enclosed itself over her, curses overheard aboard the Venture from the very salty crew, ran through her mind as her arms felt like they were being pulled off at the socket as the giant ape pulled her away from where she was tied to the sacrificial altar. The bride of Kong, as the Captain had translated when the natives tried to barter for her like a piece of meat when they arrived on this Island in the middle of the Pacific, what a laugh. If only her parents were still alive to scold their fool of a daughter.

"Ann! Ann!" came a voice from the other side of the giant wall meant to keep Kong out of the village. "Hold on Ann, we're coming!"

She recognized that voice, "John, help me! Please help me!" she screamed even as gunfire echoed out from the village as the crew of the Venture stormed forward to the rescue.

"Ann!"

Kong growled, sensing a threat began to retreat into the jungles he was king of, all the while carrying Ann away from the village almost protectively, even as John Driscoll and the men from the ship breached the large swinging doors of the enclosure.

From there, the memories of the harrowing journey were but a blur to Ann. Her greatest moment of clarity was enough to make her think she was hallucinating, after almost getting eating by several animals that should be long since turned to motor oil. Who would honestly ever believe she was almost breakfast for a Tyrannosaurus Rex? They would throw her in the loony bin and toss away the key while they were at it.

At least when she wasn't being terrified of being the lunch of some creature that shouldn't exist, the scenery was very picturesque. From high up on the mountain she could easily watch the jungle below them all the way to the great wall around the village. She was sure she also spotted the lights from the ship just off shore. Of course, her moment of star gazing was somewhat ruined by the arrival of a hungry winged reptile. Her perfume, it had to be her perfume that was attracting all these beasts to a beauty like her. When... if she made it back to the big apple, she was definitely switching to a different brand of beauty products. Provided they were cheap enough anyway.

So when John Driscoll charged out of the dark and leaped off the cliff with her to a river far below while the giant ape was distracted by yet another fight, it was like a shock to system. Soon they were running through the jungle, desperate to reach the relative safety of the village wall and the boat beyond. Behind them, the roars of an infuriated god raged, as he began to chase them down, animal instinct guiding its purpose through the night.

"Hurry Ann! We're almost there!"

"John, John, I can't..." Ann's legs gave out beneath her just as they came within sight of the wall, despite nearing exhausting himself, John didn't hesitate to scoop the young woman up into his arms and stumble his way towards the gates.

They didn't get far as with a great roar of challenge, Kong burst from the jungle in a shower of splintered wood and earth, cutting them off from refuge.

Ann screamed as John stood defiantly before the beast. Kong bared his fangs and brought his mighty fist over his head to smash down on this puny thing before it. With another roar, Kong sent his fist crashing down towards John. John, in a futile effort to protect her, curled around Ann to try and shield her from the blow. Ann's scream was cut short by the massive impact of the giant apes fist.

"Samuel Leroy Jackson Kong Junior! Just what do you think you are doing young man."

John slowly relaxed from his crouch and opened his closed eyes to the shocking sight of a seven foot high lizard girl easily holding Kong's massive fist back with a single clawed hand, while looking quite annoyed.

"Well young man."

Kong flinched back like a child being chastised by a parent, and began to quickly grunt and growl what John had to assume was the language it used.

The lizard girl groaned, before running a hand, claw, paw? through her feather like hair, some of her frustration leaking through. "Da... Sam, Sammy you listen to me young man. How many times do we have to tell you that humans are not dress up dolls for you to play with?"

Kong started to enunciate his strange form of language once more, before the lizard thing cut him off. "No Sammy. I don't care if those nutty villagers placed something in your playpen here..."

John was horrified to think that this very dangerous island was considered a child's playpen for this beast.

" ...you know we taught you better than that. What are your parents going to think? Well?"

Kong seemed to shrink into himself and mumbled something that the lizard girl nodded back to.

"That's right. See, you can still have fun here without hurting anything important. Now why don't you be a good boy and head off to bed. It's been a long exciting day for you and young men need their sleep."

At her words, Kong nodded even as he gave a mighty yawn, before moving off back into the jungle canopy.

The lizard girl sighed once more before turning her attention back to the two astonished humans in front of her.

"I'm sorry about Sammy there, but you know how toddlers can be, getting themselves into everything," she rolled her eyes.

"Anyways my name is Saurial of The Family, have you heard of us? No. Not surprising really, we try our best not to announce our presence everywhere all willy-nilly. Now, what are your names?"

"Um, my name is John, John Driscoll and this is Ann... and I'm sorry but what are you?"

"Well it's nice to meet you John John Driscoll and This Isann. As for what I am, I already told you, I'm Family." Saurial smiled a toothy grin as she helped the two humans back into the village before going back into the jungle to continue her apesitting duties. Hopefully this time she would be paid in more than just over sized bananas for her troubles. The little tike was such a trouble maker.

The End.

Inspired From The Classics [Issue 4]

 _ **Taylor Unwinds With... Imhotep!**_

It was very late into the night, or perhaps very early into the morning when Saurial decided to take an unscheduled break from her walkabout through the Sahara desert and pay a visit to the Cairo Museum, after hearing about the latest exhibit of a recently unearthed Egyptian Princess. It was very odd to her the lack of pedestrians for several blocks around the museum, even for this time of night, but figured it to be a cultural thing. There were a lot of dead things in there and the locales worships their dead ancestors or something like that, she'd have to ask Lisa for a book on the subject.

Either way, this was a good as opportunity as she'd get for some time, so she skipped her way inside the building through the unlocked doors, funny that, you'd think with as important artifacts bound up in here, there would be better security. She caught the scent of a few people inside the place, but figured they might be the guards, so she left it alone for now as she explored the different exhibits.

Huh, how bout that, King Tut was killed in a vehicle accident, apparently he wasn't paying close enough attention to the road while he was yelling at the troops. You learn something new everyday it seems.

The screams of a frightened woman interrupted her pleasant stroll through the tombs of kings.

"Tsk," she hissed as she rolled her eyes, "it never fails. I want to enjoy myself, walk in on a murder. I want to deposit a check, there's a robbery. And social life. Ha! Don't get me started. Sigh, so goes the life of the responsible demon."

Saurial continued to grumble all the way to the other side of the museum, from whence the scream of distress had come. "I swear, if it's just another easily excitable male who spotted a rat..."

She giggled as she remembered that same thing happening when her father's employee, Mr. Zephyron, walked into a dark storage shed and turned on the lights. Of course it was less funny when the same thing happened when he was in one Vectura's construction mechs.

Brockton Bay needed that new orphanage anyways.

Still employing the Family's version of a stealth cloak, Saurial approached the room with Princess exhibit hearing more raised voices. A male one calling for a sacrifice, while a female called out to the goddess Isis to protect her. Curious, she moved into the room to watch the goings on, as a man in an ancient priest's garb, hand raised high with a ceremonial knife ready to strike, approached a woman who wasn't wearing a whole lot and was prostrated before an old statue.

The man had a crazed look in his eyes as he stepped closer to the woman muttering an ancient tongue under his breath.

Saurial frowned as she considered what options she could take to resolve the situation with minimal force. Her unseen grin grew as she came up with a plan. Standing within sight of the priest, but still being unseen by the young woman, Saurial acted as a wall between him and her, causing the priest to comically bounce off her hide and onto the floor. The knife he had been holding, skidded along the floor and under one of the displays.

The priest began cursing in ancient Egyptian as he picked himself off the floor. Funny enough, the scent of the grave was wafting heavily from the man and Saurial could hear no heart beat either.

As she contemplated this, Saurial's eyes narrowed as she spied a filthy stain of black grim being left behind whenever the priest made skin contact with a surface. This was definitely not right. She watched as the enraged man searched for his weapon all the while screaming about how he would resurrect his love from the past. Some people just don't know when to let it go. Hmm, let it go. You know what, after this she was going to go skiing somewhere in eastern Europe, that's a good plan. Oh look, the undead priest guy is trying to get past her. Isn't that cute.

Saurial reached out and lightly nudged the madman back unto the floor. She did this several times, until it got boring. The woman was still chanting for Isis to save her, causing Saurial to roll her eyes, was she ever this bad?

Oh look, the priest had found his butter knife and was charging at her. On a whim, Saurial let her invisibility slowly fall causing the man to come to a jarring halt as she smiled widely at him.

"No. No. No, it is not possible!" he screamed in de-nile (a-thank-you) stepping back quickly from her scaly visage. "You will not take me, Sebek!" he shrieked before spinning on his heel to run, only to blunder into spear head that was at just the right angle to pierce where his heart once beat.

The woman's chanting reached a crescendo as the un-dead priest's body quickly began to turn to ash.

Hearing the voices of two men storming towards the room, Saurial scooped up the ashes for later study before she left, making sure that the men wouldn't bring harm to the young woman.

Exploring the mountains sounded like fun, she'd better get moving.

The End…

Inspiration From The Classics [Issue 5]

 _ **Taylor Howls at The Moon With... The Wolf Man!**_

The dark clouds parted, allowing the light of the full moon to bath the black forests of Romania in silvery shadows. Wolf howls, which should be long extinct form the area, sundered the crisp air of the night, chilling men's souls.

Several murders had happened over the past few nights, ever since the traveling band of gypsy's had quickly and quietly left the area. When asked why they were leaving so soon, their only reply had been, 'the Curse of the Werewolf'. Of course the attitude of the modern man, scoffed and dismissed these accusations as pure folklore and poppycock.

This night, the woods are full to the brim as villagers search among them for a killer. One of the leaders of this unsavory activity was Sir John Talbot, who was still dealing with the recent loss of his eldest son and his recently returned youngest Larry Talbot who had seemed to have come down with an unknown sickness after claiming to have been bitten by a wolf, since his return from the Americas, leaving him in a delusional state.

Worried for his son, the elder Talbot had left him at home chained to his bed, so he would not, in his delusional state, stumble by accident into the hunting party, or worse, the killer they were after.

It didn't help that whispers of that old gypsy tale were beginning to spread across the village, it being the the focus of his poor son's nightmares.

"Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright."

"What was that you said, Sir John?" asked the young man walking along side him.

"Hmm? Oh, that was nothing, just musing on old wives tales," he quickly assured the young man. "Has there been any word from those traveling southward, Henry?"

"Not as of yet Sir. But there shouldn't be any more trouble, I reckon we've scared the blighter off."

"Yes, yes. Still I would rather be sure, take mister Thompson and check behind us. Don't worry I shan't wander too far."

"Yes sir," Henry calls as they backtrack over their trail.

The silence of the forest stretched for a few minutes after the men had left. In the silence Sir John continued to gather his thoughts, until he heard the whisper of wagon wheels on the wind and the sound of females voices. Sir John peered into the dark, trying to catch a glimpse of the wagon, it was the old gypsy woman, Maleva, who had also lost a son recently and was responsible for filling Larry's head with all that werewolf nonsense, he was sure of it. Another wolf howl interrupted his search, it was close. Sir John choked the silver wolf-head cane his son had given him as a gift closer to his body. It was the only weapon he had on him, how foolish of him to send those men off.

A scream split the night, a female scream, a very familiar female. "Gwen," Sir John whispered, the young woman his son had been sweet on for the past week. A vicious growl echoed around the dense wood as Sir John raced towards where the young woman was screaming from. Another howl, this one of victory, rose the hair on the back of Sir John's neck. There was a great clamor from just on the other side of those bushes ahead and an almighty thwack, as someone was forcibly slammed into the ground.

"Gwen!" Sir John exclaimed as he burst from the foliage and beheld a menacing beast standing over the unconscious body of the young woman, a clawed hand reaching for her neck.

"Gwen!" Sir John screamed once more, charging the beast, he raised his silver headed cane aloft. "Get away from her, you beast!" Sir John brought the cane down over and over again, screaming out his frustrations and pain as he sought to protect the young woman.

"Get back you devil!" as he slammed the cane into it for a final time, causing it to splinter and break. Now weaponless, the out of breath lord watched in horror as the beast before it rose up, like it had never even noticed the blows in the first place.

A cloud moved past the full moon, allowing it's light to shine down and give Sir John his first look at the beast he had attacked. It was definitely not a wolf.

Orange eyes glowed from behind darkened glasses set into a most saurian face, it's blue tinted scales almost seemed to blend into the night as the creature rose to its full height, well above Sir John's own head.

The creatures taloned hand reached forward towards a frozen Sir John's throat, he knew this was his end, but he would meet his death eyes open. Therefore he was quite surprised when all the creature did was use it's claws to gently shut his still gaping mouth, and then give him a small toothy grin, before a gentle voice came from its monstrous mouth, "You should be more careful, you'll catch flies in your mouth."

The creature turned back to the young woman, and now Sir John could see that this creature was applying bandages to several scratches Gwen had accumulated in her head long flight through the woods.

"Poor thing," it said, "I'd heal her fully, but I think I'll leave them as a reminder that one shouldn't run blindly into the woods at night. What do you think, is that a good idea?" she, and it was definitely a she, asked of the petrified male. It was all Sir John could do to give a small nod of his head.

The creature beamed at him. "Excellent! I told Lisa I was getting better at this social thing you humans put so much stock into." She then tilted her head to the other side of the clearing, where a horse drawn wagon, carrying the old gypsy woman had pulled a stop, as the spry old woman jumped down and made her way towards another figure on the ground that Sir John had failed to see in his earlier haste.

The figure had a shape of a man but covered in hair, fangs protruded from its extended muzzle, it's distorted hands and feet tipped with sharp claws.

Sir John found himself shocked into action, "A werewolf. It actually exists? But how?"

He watched as the giant lizard creature moved towards the werewolf, startling the old woman into moving away from the unmoving figure.

"Werewolf?" the creature questioned. "No such thing. Poor guy is just suffering from the symptoms of Hypertrichosis. And a little bit of dementia, probably. Either way, I know some Family that can help him out, so I'll take him home with me."

The excited yells of the hunters coming nearer and the baying of their hounds drew the attention of Sir John and the old woman away from the lizard creature for a moment. When they looked back, it had the werewolf over her shoulder and was leaning Sir John's repaired cane against the old woman's wagon, before starting to stroll away.

"Thy way thou walked t'was thorny, through no fault of thou own. But as rains enters soil, rivers enter the sea, so tears run to a predestined end. Thou suffering is over. Now thou shall find peace."

Like a wavering heat, the fur peeled back from the things maw, to reveal the handsome face of Sir John's son, Larry Talbot.

"Where," asked the old woman astonished that someone not of her line, knew gypsy lore, "Where did you learn that phrase?"

"I like to read a lot," the scaly beast stated before disappearing into the mists with Sir John's son.

The End...


End file.
